Speech Boot Camp

Several months ago, I added ‘Speech Boot Camp’ to our ‘to do’ list. Well, thanks to trips away, homeschool camps, and voyages on the sailing ship, our public speaking course was put on the back burner. That is, until this week.



We began on Monday. The first session involved watching a DVD, and then evaluating the sample speeches. As is always the case when watching Andrew Pudewa, we were in stitches! Andrew has such a superb way of presenting the material, so that even an assignment such as preparing and giving a speech comes over as something that is fun to do (very handy for nervous students!).


Three days later, it was time for us all to present our first speech. I decided it would be a good idea for me to join in with the class, and so, one by one we stood up to present our first speech – ‘Self-Introduction’. We even found an old lectern out in the shed, so we were well prepared, and with the addition of a ‘Speech Boot Camp’ sign, the atmosphere was set. Given that we are all from the same family, it was a little strange to introduce ourselves to each other, but despite that, we had some very interesting content, and it was especially interesting to hear about my teenager’s goals for the future.


And I have to say, I was very impressed! I was fairly certain my son would not have a problem with presenting a 4-5 minute talk, but I wasn’t so sure in regards to the confidence of my two teenage daughters. But what a fantastic job they all did. The talks were full of content, were interesting, and were presented in a most enjoyable way. We even learned a thing or two about each other that we didn’t know before.






We completed the lesson by offering feedback to each speaker, based on poise, locution, eye content and persuasion. Fortunately, most of the comments were positive, with just a few pointers where people could improve. The whole session went off remarkably well, and I’m only sorry that I was unable to video the talks. However, I did snap a few photos of our day. There are four talks to complete during the Speech Boot Camp course, so it will be most interesting to see how it all progresses.




Linda.